Hasan Piker Declares ‘I Don’t Have Any Patriotism’ for America While Streaming From Tiananmen Square

Popular progressive pundit Hasan Piker live-streamed from Beijing’s Tiananmen Square early Tuesday morning, where he was both briefly intercepted by Chinese police and declared he has “no patriotism in his heart for America.” Piker has exploded on the national scene in recent months, garnering profiles from outlets like The New York Times and CNN, suggesting he is the left’s answer to Joe Rogan.

Piker was joined by another Twitch streamer, Will Neff, in Tiananmen Square for “the daily sunset flag-raising ceremony in front of Tiananmen Gate and the portrait of Chinese Communist Party founder Mao Zedong,” reported Newsweek.

The report added that Piker and Neff were on camera when Neff held up his phone and showed “appeared to be an AI-created image showing Mao in the likeness of Piker, accompanied by the Maoist slogan ‘Closely follow the great leader Chairman Mao forward in the revolution!’”

Chinese police then quickly interrupted the stream and told them to stop filming, although the audio continued. Chinese police strictly enforce filming in the square, which was the site of the brutal massacre of pro-democracy protesters in June of 1989. Newsweek’s report continued:

Within seconds, a police officer approached and instructed them to put away the phone, which they did, though the audio kept recording.

“He wants to see the photo,” the translator said after a brief exchange. Neff replied that he hadn’t taken any photos. The translator relayed, “He said he saw you.” “Oh, I was just holding the camera, but I didn’t do anything yet,” Neff answered.

The officer then asked to review the most recent footage from the livestream. The broadcast abruptly cut to black, with an intermission screen displaying the message “We’re doing secret memes. Be right back” later being added.

“This is awesome. I don’t know why people aren’t enjoying all of this,” Piker then said as the broadcast continued.

During the stream, Piker also marveled at the show of support for the Chinese Communist Party among the crowd gathered in the square.

“What makes it interesting for me, at least, is seeing so many people from all around the country literally travel here just to see this. That part is insane. Look how many. I don’t have any sort of patriotism in my heart for any– Yeah, for America, but just in general,” Piker said, adding:

I care about people. So for me it’s hard to comprehend. But I do understand it in some ways, and I kind of wanted to talk to some of the people here because like all of the old people that you see around, right, you have to remember, every single person that you see around us, that’s like, especially if they’ve been around, especially they’ve been alive since like the 70s or the 60s, they have seen a radical transformation in their lifetimes unlike any other country, right? So for them, I think there’s a lot of pride in that.

Mao’s Cultural Revolution, which purged the country of academics, capitalists, and traditional institutions, lasted from 1966 to 1976 and killed some 2 million people, although estimates vary as to the exact death toll.

Piker has long been a source of controversy on the right for his boosting of terror groups like Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen, while also arguing that the U.S. is the world’s “top terrorist.”

Piker figured prominently at New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s victory party last week, where he joked on camera that the U.S. “unfortunately” defeated the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

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